This disclosure relates generally to optical fibers, and more particularly to electric arc apparatuses for processing optical fibers, and related systems and methods.
Optical fibers are useful in a wide variety of applications, including the telecommunications industry for voice, video, and data transmissions. In a telecommunications system that uses optical fibers, there are typically many locations where fiber optic cables that carry the optical fibers connect to equipment or other fiber optic cables. To conveniently provide these connections, fiber optic connectors are often provided on the ends of fiber optic cables. The process of terminating individual optical fibers from a fiber optic cable is referred to as “connectorization.” Connectorization can be done in a factory, resulting in a “pre-connectorized” or “pre-terminated” fiber optic cable, or the field (e.g., using a “field-installable” fiber optic connector).
Regardless of where installation occurs, a fiber optic connector typically includes a ferrule with one or more bores that receive one or more optical fibers. The ferrule supports and positions the optical fiber(s) with respect to a housing of the fiber optic connector. Thus, when the housing of the fiber optic connector is mated with another connector or an adapter, an optical fiber in the ferrule is positioned in a known, fixed location relative to the housing. This allows an optical connection to be established when the optical fiber is aligned with another optical fiber provided in the mating component (i.e., the other connector or an adapter).
The ferrule bore in a fiber optic connector may extend from a rear of the ferrule to a front of the ferrule. With such a design, an optical fiber can be passed through the ferrule so as to extend beyond an end face of the ferrule. After securing the optical fiber relative to the ferrule by using a bonding agent or the like, an optical surface (i.e., an end surface/facet intended for optical coupling) may be formed on the optical fiber. The optical surface is typically formed a precise distance from the end face of the ferrule according to very tight dimensional standards to reduce signal attenuation. For example, the final optical surface of the optical fiber may be within 200 nm of the end face of the ferrule.
One conventional method of forming an optical surface involves a mechanical cleaving step followed by several mechanical polishing steps. Such methods can be time-consuming and labor-intensive due to the number of polishing steps required to precisely control material removal and meet the tight dimensional requirements. For example, it may be necessary to begin with coarse grit when mechanically polishing and gradually switch to finer grits in subsequent polishing steps to carefully control the protrusion of the optical fiber from the end face of the ferrule and to form an optical surface of high quality. Mechanical polishing processes can be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and use a large amount of consumables. Additionally, these processes sometimes suffer from low yields due to human error.
Various techniques for cleaving and polishing an optical fiber with non-mechanical means, such as with lasers or electric arcs, are also known. Although these techniques may help reduce or eliminate some of the polishing steps associated with mechanical processing, there remains room for improvement.